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Monday, December 12, 2011

A bit of a tiz over a survey which purports to show 56 per cent of people are behind an increase in the price of cheap alcohol. This would be a survey commissioned by the Health Sponsorship Council, a government body whose purpose is? Well to commission surveys and write reports I guess.

But anyone with half a brain knows that pricing alcohol out of the range of the poor will fix nothing.

The gentlemen in the photo above have not secured cosy sinecures in obscure Government bodies filling their days commissioning surveys and writing reports that nobody will read, then going home to their comfy abodes to bask in the glow of their accomplishments.

No - for whatever reason there is no place for them at the table and all shreds of human dignity have fled. And if a cheap bottle of plonk is denied then something will give in order to buy a more expensive one, food most likely. And failing that some other substance, more harmful will be resorted to to blot out the agony of their daily existence.

And understanding this is the first step in fixing it - although how I am not quite sure.

But it begins with teaching people to value their dignity and making sure that as many people as possible have a stake in our society and that happens in families.

3
comment(s):

And therein lies the rub. No-one knows how to fix it, least of all governments. But we expect our government to "do something", so they do. Putting up the price of alcohol WILL reduce consumption. The government will point at this statistic and say " look what we've achieved". Sadly, what they will have achieved, in reality, is lower consumption amongst those who were drinking sensibly and deeper poverty amongst the group you describe above.

All this survey tells us is 56% of those surveyed are well enough off that they don't need to buy the cheapest alcohol, and more than 75% of those surveyed were over 20. Many people are enthusiastic about restrictions that will only apply to others, but as a basis for policy it's a completely crap one.